We left Galapagos after the WARC fleet as we needed to pick up the last bit of fuel possible that we needed for the long Pacific crossing. So, we got away at 5pm after a last visit from endless officials!! Looking for smuggled animals – as if anyone wants a smelly walrus or booby on board!

Our trip was 17 days of mainly uneventful weather and seas. There were one or two rain squalls that were really heavy but with no wind increase – so pretty easy to live with. We caught fish successfully and settled into our watch routines fairly quickly. There was a full lunar eclipse one night that we all got up for. Pretty amazing is such a clear pacific sky with NO light pollution. We even turned off our nav lights for a bit to appreciate it fully.

Daytime moon

Blood moon

Brilliant nighttime illumination.

Something to do on a long trip

The picture on the box is not the finished puzzle - it’s what the captain sees. I’ve done this before - good fun.

Half way was marked by a bottle of champagne and waffles for lunch, otherwise we run a dry boat on passage. Some boats have sundowners and wine with dinner but because we can’t trust ourselves to stop at one – we quit altogether!

Our arrival was at 3 am in rain, which, of course, stopped once we finished anchoring. In the morning our position turned out to be ideal which is not always the case with anchoring in the dark.

We had a warm welcome by the ARC organisers on site, Paul and Leslie, with leis for the ladies and bead necklaces for the men.

Over all we came in second! Peter and I lost 2 kilos along the way – no booze….. We came in with 1,500 litre of diesel to spare, which was a really healthy margin. We travelled at a sweet spot of 1570 rpm with periods of wind and current behind and averaged just over 7.5 kn for the whole trip. Fuel consumption averaging 1.6 litres per nautical mile. Compared with the damage most boats managed to do to their sails, running and standing rigging our fuel bill looks very light!

Our sea state for much of the trip!